Uncomfortable confrontation scene #141 — Empty Places: The Rant

Warning: Spoilerish to the amount of 10.
– Ok, WHO TOLD EVERYONE ABOUT THE APOCALYPSE? I didn’t see the memo. It’s not like the sun was blacked-out in Sunnydale. There wasn’t any large event to ensure this was going to happen. How did everyone know? Are the Sunnydale residents more “in the know” than we ever thought? I’m going back to my memo theory.

– Everyone must think Clem has a skin condition, because no one is looking at him and running away. There he is in his brand new VW Beetle with the window down in the middle of the day, and I don’t see any children crying.

– That whole opener with Clem and Buffy was cute, by the way. Cute.

– Xander and Willow on the hospital bed – it was a touching moment. Too bad Buffy is an uncaring bitch, or she could’ve joined in on the joke/cry segment. Instead she decides to go to the school and look at a picture of the three of them and cry, ’cause hellmouth-forbid she should show real emotion to two people who’ve helped her since she strolled into town seven years ago.

– The Anya/Andrew/SITs basement meeting was hillarious. “Breakup sex” *scribble scribble*

– I liked the continuity of Faith mentioning that she got to Xander first. That kind of stuff I dug it, even though I figure Faith wouldn’t have mentioned it and this was pushed a little too easy.

– You know, a lot of people don’t like Caleb. I personally think he’s the scariest villian they’ve had since…well… maybe ever. He’s humanly evil. He’s not a demon. He feels like a real person, and those are always the more scary evils.

– Spike and Andrew on the bike. The conversation about the blooming onion had me almost on the floor.

– It figures that every establishment in town is closed due to an upcoming apocalypse, but the Bronze is still open. Does anyone else find that annoyingly convieniant?

– Xander is back. The writers have FINALLY figured out how to make our White Knight even more pathetic looking with this stupid one-eye story. Thanks a bunch for ruining a true hero, M.E.

– I imagine Buffy’s right about the vineyard, but everyone was right, and she was wrong. It was about time someone mentioned how Buffy was “chosen”, how she lucked out becoming the slayer. It wasn’t something she had to earn, she was born with it. And that’s generally the difference between Buffy and everyone else (excluding Faith) – she got lucky. I still don’t like the fact that Kennedy and Rona spoke up. I think they should sit their SIT (sit their SIT…ha!) asses down and bow down to all of the scoobs for still being alive at THIS POINT. But I think what Giles, Xander, Anya and Willow said was correct.

– ON THE OTHER HAND, why did Buffy have to be kicked out of the house? Because the plot called for it. That’s the only reason. It could quite possibly be the single most dumb moment I’ve ever seen on the show. Dawn kicks her sister out of the house because she doesn’t agree with her. “So Buffy you aren’t the general anymore, could you mind GETTING OUT, GETTING OUT, GETTING OUT?” Retarded.

Final Verdict: There were some huge holes this week – more than usual. It really sucks that this is what they came up with with only 3 more episodes to go. There were some cool moments, and then there were some moments where I wanted to leave the room and say “what are you doing”. I really don’t want to think of Buffy as an unfeeling bitch until the last moment of the series, and I really don’t want to see Xander with an eye patch at the end. Even though he’s funny, I don’t want to see Andrew having more lines than people who have been around since the beginning. And I sure as hell don’t want to see stupid plotlines with absolutely no backbone like throwing Buffy out of the house. There were some good moments in “Empty Places”, but ultimately it was disappointing.

Rating: 3 STAKES (They should all be 4 at this point…sad.)

Rant Over.

– Mac